Gilded Girls: Women Entertainers of the Old West by Jo Ann Chartier and Chris Enss
"A delicious, illuminating glimpse at the colorful and often scandalous women who made their living performing for the restless souls of the Old West." --Bob Boze Bell, True West magazine
"With Gilded Girls Chartier and Enss have again shown us an overlooked facet of the Old West...A must read for anyone who wants a well-rounded knowledge of the 1800s in western American." -- Dakota & Sunny Livesay, Chronicle of the Old West newspaper
From Catherine Hayes, the "Irish prima donna," and Maude Adams, "the most popular actress in America," to the legendary Sarah Bernhardt, Gilded Girls profiles fourteen of the liveliest, wildest and most talented female entertainers ever to light up the boards of the western frontier. You'll meet "the Jersey Lily," who was wildly admired by men as various as Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Diamond Jim Brady, and Judge Roy Bean; Mrs. Leslie Carter, a scandal-plagued society woman who became a famous actress as an act of revenge against her patrician ex-husband; a French-Creole beauty know as the "Frenzy of Frisco" who took up the Zionist and feminist causes in between her daring acting roles; and "Klondike Kate," a flame-haired entertainer who took Alaska's gold rush country by storm but suffered a very public heartbreak.
Some of these fascinating women are renowned even to this day, others are remembered only in the pages of history, but all personified the daring, colorful, and independent spirit of the Old West.
Paperback, c2003, 182 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-175) and index.
